Tonight, your Pittsburgh Penguins (14-8-0 – First Place) take on the Long IslandBrooklyn New York Islanders (8-11-3 – Last Place) in a battle of Metropolitan opponents.

These teams met 4 weeks ago tonight at Consol Energy Center. The Penguins controlled the first 53 minutes of this game and decided it was time to start thinking about the next night’s game in Canada. The wheels fell off for the final 7 minutes and the Pens snatched a loss from the jaws of victory.

Jeff Zatkoff (1-2) gets his fourth nod of the season tonight. The good news is he hasn’t allowed a goal since that Islanders game, but the bad news is he has only started one other game during this 4 week stretch.

Thomas Vanek and speedster Michael Grabner will both return to the lineup tonight for the Isles. The Pens expect to roll out the same 18 skaters from their last game.

The Penguins are trying to right a ship that’s been floating at .500 (7-7) since they jumped out of the gate 7-1. They’ve looked good the last two games, but the speed of the Islanders is always a test. Zatkoff will have to be on his game and the defense will have to continue its play from the last 6 periods of hockey.

It's weird though. The Pens twitter account always posts the pairings at practice. The last few weeks (since we haven't seen Bort) they only announce Forward groupings and if they say anything blueline related, it's rotation. Even the media has been hush hush on it.